


During work, he's not Aaron

by Northflower



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Angst, Death, Gen, The Prowler, it's not a ship for the love of god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 05:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northflower/pseuds/Northflower
Summary: The Prowler chases a kid he was ordered to kill. The kid is fast, but not fast enough.





	During work, he's not Aaron

The Prowler jumped from wall to wall, the adrenaline of the chase filling him as the eerie glow from his boots painted both his prey and the tile walls surrounding them a striking purple. When the kid looked back, he could see the horror in his round eyes even though surrounded by darkness, yet The Prowler had been able to shake guilt a long time ago. It was just another job. But oh, was the kid giving a fight.

The boy was dressed up in a bad Spider-Man costume with the price tag still hanging from it and whirling behind in the wind. He was remarkably fast yet kept stumbling and running into walls and objects out of pure fright. The Prowler often had that kind of an effect on people. His mechanical claws brushed past the kid as he sprinted towards the light at the end of the alley. He was so tiny that he was quite difficult to catch, but The Prowler never lost his prey. He couldn’t.

Trying to catch someone on the pedestrian street would be a doomed plan, the hunter quickly decided and climbed over the tall building instead; his motorcycle should be nearby. Although a small kid like the spider boy could get past the people there in the dead of the night, for The Prowler that would just mean unnecessary blood spilled. He spotted the vehicle in the other alley and jumped on top quickly starting to speed so the kid wouldn’t get away. The growling of the engine filled his ears as he almost ran straight into the boy had he not jumped out of the way at the last moment, and there they were again. Those big, terrified eyes. Aaron – no, The Prowler – watched the purple light reflect off of them and almost felt like trying to invert the direction of the motorcycle, but then he was smashing into mailboxes and shook the thought away; what was he thinking? He slammed his foot to the street in an effort to swiftly turn his bike and continue the pursuit. There were sparks from the street, and he was on his prey’s trail again.

The kid was starting to look out of breath at this point, stumbling around and flailing his skinny arms. The Prowler quietly smiled under his helmet; that meant the chase was almost over. He extended his hand and tried to grasp the boy’s leg, but he swiftly jumped away and left The Prowler to be slammed against a truck. His head stung despite the protection of the suit. The kid sure was agile, and now the chaser had started to feel like the clumsy one. He could hear police sirens from afar, meaning he would have to catch the spider soon. The kid had leaped on top of a taxi, but the speed of the car couldn’t match The Prowler’s and he was quickly catching up. Yet once he did and raised his arm again in an attempt to grab the boy, he jumped to the side and caught the side of a truck with his hands, fleeing from his hunters grasp yet again. He dug his claws to the side of the truck as the very dexterous boy leaped out of his reach and hung to the front of the truck. The Prowler was losing his patience now and struck at the tire of the truck. The wheel screeched against the road and the sparks painted the road golden, the rest of the truck now illuminated by a red light.

The Prowler realized his mistake too late.

The truck was unable to brake effectively due to the broken tire, so instead, it rammed right into another car. Glass shards flew around as The Prowler was forced to stop his bike and the kid flew right over the wreck of a car. The hunter wasn’t fast enough and could only leave his bike behind in an attempt of survival, throwing his body at the street and rolling around a few times before quickly hiding in yet another alley as the kid was recovering from his own impact with the street. Heaving, Aaron almost felt kind of proud of the boy for escaping from him so well, but this feeling quickly disappeared as the kid started to run away from the scene and The Prowler realized that Fisk wouldn’t be very happy if he got away.

So instead of slinking away to check the damage on his suit, he climbed up the wall of one of the two buildings he was hiding between and jumped to the next rooftop, not letting his eyes off his prey. The kid didn’t seem to have noticed him, picking odd routes but slowly ceasing to run and leaning against a wall of a shitty building in a shitty neighborhood, much like the one The Prowler used to have. The only way he had been able to escape from that had been the additional money provided by his extra job. He wasn’t about to give this somewhat decent life up because he wasn’t able to catch a _fucking child_. Having reached the kid from above, he looked down at his lithe frame, now slumped against the building in exhaustion, probably heaving for breath so loud that he couldn’t even hear his impending doom approaching. The boy sat down.

It was an easy task.

The Prowler lunged down as quietly as he could. The kid finally noticed him, and barely had time to turn his head to look at him with those eyes when The Prowler’s claws were already grasping at his suit, easily tearing through the bad fabric and sinking into the boy’s skin. They were both illuminated by that purple light The Prowler carried with him everywhere, and now the same striking red the kid’s suit carried was flowing down his arm as he held up the little spider. The kid gasped as the metal sunk into his gut, letting out what seemed like a broken sob. Aaron – _The Prowler_ grimaced at that; he wasn’t about to watch the kid cry. So instead, he held the body back and then slammed it straight into the wall of the building with all the strength he had. The sound was sickening, and nausea set in the bottom of his stomach as the now limp body dropped to the street, painting the asphalt with red that was quickly spreading, the same red that was covering the hunter’s hand – no, not his hand, only the suit. The Prowler’s suit.

The body now looked even tinier than before, sprawled across the ground, unmoving. Those eyes were still wide with terror. The Prowler quickly looked around to see how the alley looked and whether he could leave the body here or if it would be safer to move it elsewhere. Perhaps he should take it back to Fisk as proof of having the job done? Maybe he would even get a little more money.

His train of thought was lost as his eyes landed on the kid’s uncovered hands.

The hands were covered in spray paint.

Aaron’s stomach lurched. He reached to remove his helmet for a better look, and as it peeled back, he could better see the picture before him (which is why he often preferred to keep the mask on). The eyes he had before avoided looking at now looked so familiar, the same adoring eyes that had looked up to him so many times before… The traces of their time spent together visible on those bare hands that were starting to turn blue in the chilly air, no blood flowing there to warm the fingertips anymore. Aaron absent-mindedly took those hands in his own and started rubbing them in an effort to bring the warmth back into them, so the kid wouldn’t get cold. He couldn’t bring himself to take off Miles’ mask as if it was the only thing separating Aaron from the harsh reality of what he had just done. But the suit couldn’t cover the red spreading on the child’s stomach, or how his neck had bent to an unnatural angle. Aaron felt like throwing up. Instead, he held the boy close, his fragile, lifeless body in his arms, arms still covered by the mechanical parts of his suit. His suit didn’t make him feel so strong now, it was just useless pieces of metal, powerless to bring his nephew back.

Snow started slowly falling down the alley as the broken man was sobbing all alone with his mistakes.

**Author's Note:**

> I have written humans exactly once before but I just needed this fic to exist ok


End file.
